Abraham Offers Isaac

Abraham loved Isaac dearly, as his only son, given to him on the threshold of old age by the favor of God. The child, for his part, endeared himself to his parents still more by practicing every virtue, by keeping to his duty toward his parents, and by his zeal in the worship of God. Abraham also placed his own happiness in this hope: that when he died he would leave this son of his safe and secure. And by the will of God he obtained it. [a]

For God, wishing to test Abraham’s devotion toward himself, appeared to him and listed all the blessings he had given him: how he had made him stronger than his enemies, and that his son Isaac, the chief part of his present happiness, had come from God. And he said that he required this son of his as a sacrifice and a holy offering. So he commanded him to take him to Mount Moriah, build an altar, and offer him on it as a burnt offering; for this would best show his devotion toward God, if he put what pleased God before the life of his own son.

Abraham thought it was not right to disobey God in anything, but that he was bound to serve him in every circumstance of life, since everything that happens to those he favors comes about by his providence. So he hid this command of God, and his own intention to slaughter his son, from his wife and from every one of his servants; otherwise he would have been prevented from obeying God. He took Isaac, together with two of his servants, loaded what was needed for a sacrifice on a donkey, and set off for the mountain. The two servants went with him for two days; but on the third day, as soon as he saw the mountain, he left the servants who had come with him so far on the plain, and went on to the mountain with his son alone. It was the mountain on which King David afterward built the temple. [b]

They had brought with them everything needed for a sacrifice except the animal to be offered. Isaac was twenty-five years old. As he was building the altar, he asked his father what he was going to offer, since there was no animal there for an offering. The answer was: “God will provide himself an offering. He is able to make plentiful provision for people out of what they do not have, and to take away from others what they already have, when they put too much trust in it. So if God is pleased to be present and favorable at this sacrifice, he will provide himself an offering.”

As soon as the altar was ready, and Abraham had laid the wood on it, and everything was fully prepared, he said to his son, “My son, I asked God with countless prayers that I might have you for my son. When you came into the world, there was nothing for your support that I did not anxiously provide, and nothing in which I thought myself happier than to see you grown to manhood, and to leave you at my death as the heir to my rule. But since it was by God’s will that I became your father, and it is now his will that I give you up, bear this consecration to God with a noble spirit. For I give you up to God, who has now thought fit to ask this mark of honor to himself, in return for the favors he has shown me in being my helper and defender. So you, my son, will now die — not in any common way of leaving the world, but sent ahead to God, the Father of all, by your own father, as a sacrifice. I suppose he thinks you worthy to leave this world neither by disease, nor by war, nor by any other cruel way in which death usually comes on people, but so that he will receive your soul with prayers and holy rites, and will place you near himself. There you will be my helper and support in my old age — which is chiefly why I raised you — and so you will secure God himself as my comforter in place of yourself.”

Isaac had the noble spirit that befitted the son of such a father, and he was pleased with these words. He said, “I would not have deserved to be born at all, if I were to reject the decision of God and of my father, and not give myself up readily to the will of you both. It would have been wrong not to obey, even if my father alone had decided it.” So he went at once to the altar to be sacrificed. And the deed would have been done if God had not stood in the way; for he called loudly to Abraham by name, forbade him to kill his son, and said, “It was not out of any desire for human blood that I commanded you to kill your son, nor did I wish, by so impious an act, to take from you the son I made you the father of. I did it to test the temper of your mind, whether you would obey such a command. Since I am now satisfied of your eagerness, and of the astonishing readiness you have shown in your devotion, I am glad to have given you such blessings. I will never fail to take every care of you and of your descendants. Your son will live to a great age; he will live a happy life, and leave a large dominion to his children, who will be good and legitimate.” He foretold also that Abraham’s family would grow into many nations and in wealth, and that those patriarchs would leave behind them an everlasting name; that they would win the land of Canaan by force of arms, and be envied by all people. When God had said this, he brought out for them a ram, which had not been seen before, for the sacrifice. So Abraham and Isaac, receiving each other back beyond hope, and having obtained the promises of such great blessings, embraced one another; and when they had offered the sacrifice, they returned to Sarah and lived happily together, God helping them in everything they wished. [e]